Negative feedback requested
It’s not often that organizations will ask for negative feedback, but no one has ever accused us of going along with the grain.
We hear from many people quite frequently who tell us how great the site is, how they appreciate what we’re doing, and why they are nominating us for sainthood. Hundreds of people send in cold hard cash to support the authors each month, and a handful of folks send money directly to the site just to try and help out.
Don’t get me wrong — I love all of that. Keep ‘em coming. Seriously.
But it can’t all be good, can it? Surely there must be some things about the site or our business model (hah!) that leave you at best frustrated and at worst peeved beyond belief. Sure, we get the occasional “I can’t get this chapter” or “why don’t I see all of the episodes in my feed” questions/reactions. 9 times out of 10, these don’t point to a problem with the system and are usually an issue of human error — on one side or another.
So consider this your open call to tell Chris and I what you don’t like about the site. The sky is the limit, so blue sky the hell out of it. What do you wish we did better? We’ve got a few (dozen) ideas on what we can do to improve your experience, but it’s best when we hear from you. So unload on us, right here or email me directly. My first name at this domain dot com will do the trick.
E.
August 14th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
The only issue that bugs me on the website is the login screen. Whenever I go the site, I generally have to login, and then every time I ask for another episode to be released, it brings me back to the login screen, and I have to login again to get back to the list of my subscriptions. The episode I ask to be released still is though. At first, I thought it wanted me to enter my credentials (kind of like ebay does, which I also find annoying), but it just seems that asking for the next episode to be released, releases it, and then logs me out. Otherwise, this place is amazing, and I have trouble remembering life before podiobooks on my ipod. Thanks!
August 14th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Funny timing, as I just thought of something this morning. When one of my subscriptions is complete, I’d like to be able to get an email that tells me that. If I’m subscribed to several books I might not be able to keep up to date on all of them, and thus some will fall behind. Once a book is complete, however, I have a new option - I can create a new playlist for it by itself instead of just feeding individual episodes into my “new podcasts” list. You know what I’m saying?
Also, I hate it when a podiobook offers me no field on which to properly sort the chapters. Sometimes they’ll go 1,10,11,2,3… or sometimes you’ll even see 4,5, Six, Seven … argh. I like to have one steady stream of podcasts, I don’t like paging through dozens of podcasts in my queue to figure out where episode 4 showed up.
Oh and, like Kurt, I’m not crazy about the extra steps necessary to subscribe.
August 14th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
Often I download a complete book before listening to it. In order to comment, I have to resubscribe to the book. Is there a way to keep my subscription history on file? Just a minor thing.
August 14th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
I think it would be nice to have some sort of book spotlight or maybe a “People who subscribed to this also subscribed to this” kind of feature.
August 14th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
Hard to be negative to such a greate site.
Something I would like to see changed is have the next release date updated after I release an episode. If I am subscribed to a book and the schedule is ‘One Every Week’ and I release a new episode, I think the next release date should be a week from the last release.
August 14th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
I’ve only got two small problems, which like Evo says may not actually be problems with the site. After signing up and setting up preferences for a feed, nothing ever shows up past the first title in the feed. I use bloglines as my RSS reader, and when the feed is generated and I click on it in firefox, it takes me to the bloglines site and adds the feed with the first episode in it, but after months none of the feeds has been updated and I just end up going to podiobooks.com and downloading the episodes. It could be firefox is broken, or bloglines is broken, or bloglines doesn’t work with podiobooks.com (none of my other feeds subscribed to this way do this, although none of them also have username/passwords associated with them).
The other issue is that when logged in, I can only go to one book’s page. Whether I click on a featured book, or search for a book, after the first book’s page comes up, no links on the whole page work. I’m using Firefox 2.0.0.6, or Konqueror 3.5.1-5. In both cases, I end up having to close the browser and browse for books without logging in. Of course, due to the problem above with the feeds not working, there isn’t much point in logging in. Again, it may be a browser problem with some specific code on the podiobooks page.
The only other annoying thing is the paypal donation. I don’t really like PayPal, so I won’t register a bank account with them, and it only lets me donate once per day (or so) using the credit card donation. So, if I have a number of authors that I want to donate to, I have to remember to keep going back. And I always forget, until Evo sends the nice thank you note email and I remember I have to go back and donate again
August 14th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
if i log in from 2 computers, i have to delete my podiobooks.com cookies from the first before it will even load a page. i sometime have password issues that force me to “forget my password” every few months.
August 14th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
Your database should remember all my previous subscriptions and
a) allow me to filter them out in searches
b) give me a list of them
c) give me a visual cue for each book
August 15th, 2007 at 12:23 am
I have an idea that would speed up searches. It involves logging information for an author’s other works on one of their podiobook pages. This could be in the form of small button that links to their other books or a link to an author specific page featuring all of their offerings.
August 15th, 2007 at 1:13 am
The only thing I’ve caught myself wishing for is a “what new books have become available since I last visited” option. Sure, I can essentially get that by going back through and reading the blog feeds, but I’m lazy and don’t want to weed through the non-book notices. It may also be implicit in the recent updates section, but “added X chapter” doesn’t tell me if it is the first instance of the book.
How about a simple way to give feedback of “this isn’t coming down in a format I can use” or “this link to subscribe didn’t work for me”? Let us know if format won’t be straight mp3? There have been a few promising books that I ended up having to stop because they were coming down in a format my player couldn’t use (m4a, I think, seems like Dr. Janeway’s Plague was one of these), and I won’t sit and listen to them at the computer. For others, my catcher (Creative’s Zencast) said it couldn’t load the link. It’s just a small minority of them, and Lord knows I’m subscribed and listening to plenty already, but I feel like I’m missing out on hearing some pretty wonderful stuff.
August 15th, 2007 at 2:01 am
I’d like to be able to see if I’m already subscribed when I look at search listings and the list of subscriptions is getting complicated, I’d love to be able to sort them into folders.
August 15th, 2007 at 3:19 am
I’d love to be able to add a tag to a book. A function like this would allow members to add to the website as well. Also, why not have a forum for the website? It is nice to have the blog entries but they feel more formal than a thread-based system for commenting on podcast novels. It would be neat to have an “add media” function for novels and the website itself. This includes stuff like fan art, and an author could designates specific freedoms in their sections. Heck, why not have a section for adding links to reviews and other promo stuff.
August 15th, 2007 at 7:33 am
I’d like to see the author’s name clickable in all listings so I can see other titles that have been released by that author.
A more functional search would be a plus as well. I have to list all titles to find what I’m looking for.
August 15th, 2007 at 8:04 am
I would like an option to choose manually as a schedual, I only have 45 mins a day to listen to stuff so I can only affored to have 1 book on the go at a time, it would be nice however to be able to sign up when I see a book I like the look of.
August 15th, 2007 at 11:02 am
An actual response when a request for technical support is submitted (via the contact email) would be nice.
August 15th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
ditto what Tony said: Give us a list of new additions to the site! Even if it doesn’t remember the last time I visited, let me know what’s been added recently.
August 15th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
I’ve liked the minimal advertising that Podiobooks has started to use so far. However, I had to listen to the advertising bumpers again to get the links when I couldn’t find any links off the main webpage. How about a “site sponsors” link page or something similar as a nod to advertisers like iFrogs and Adagio?
August 15th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
I also would like to have a way to one-click and find all titles by the same author. I also sometimes have issues with the file naming system. (OK, not sometimes- I don’t think a single title has followed the same format all the way through).
That’s it though, from me… I recommend this site to EVERYONE who comments on my ipod. This is the best thing ever!
Jenn
August 15th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Just had another idea strike me on the way to work. How about more of a “one-stop donate” feature? Right now it looks like it takes individual requests and separate billings to donate to multiple authors I might want to support, even though I can find them all on the “my subscriptons” page.
What about a page or link that would take us to another place (or have the area at the bottom of the “my subscriptions” page). This place would show a “total donation” field, followed by separate lines for each book/author you are currently subscribed to. Each author/book line you had would have a check box (if you want to split the [remainder] total as evenly as possible), separate money fields next to that (if you wanted to give a particular book/author a different uneven amounts) and then the author/book(s) information. Another link/box would allow us to “split total among all my subscriptions” (or just a “select all” that would prefill in the previously mentinoed check boxes). Submit then does one bill/charge but the money splits out to the multiple destinations.
August 15th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
I LOVE this site! I wait until a book is complete, however, before subscribing because I just can’t stand the suspense and prefer to listen straight through. A way to view available books that are complete vs. in progress would be great for me. Oh, and also Tim above said it best “Listeners who subscribed to this book also enjoyed… “
August 16th, 2007 at 11:06 am
I agree with “what’s new” on the site, and I think it would be really neat to have a “subscribe to this genre” type thing where you get an email or notice about a new book that’s been added to a specific genre.
Honestly a majority of the problems I’ve had (and there aren’t that many to begin with) stem from the authors themselves. Having something that tells you what happened last is wonderful, especially when I’m trying to keep track of the different books I’m listening to, plus the ones for school/home/etc that I’m reading. I also have to do a fair amount of cleaning up at times because the author will change the name of the feed for the same book, and it will create a new list in iTunes; I’ve had to edit episode numbers as well so when I’m driving I don’t have to scroll through to find the next one instead of just letting it play through.
I love the idea of a “Listeners who subscribed” option too.
I’ve been horribly addicted to this site ever since I found it, and now that my dad is hooked too, he and I listen to it when we’re working in the office. The only time I’ve ever been horribly disappointed in the site is when it’s been down due to overflow and I can’t access my addiction
August 16th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
I’d like a better search ability. Right now, you either have a drop down list for genre, or type in keywords with a box for completed books. My problem is that what if I want just completed Science Fiction books? If you do that, you get 7 books, but if you choose Science Fiction in the drop down list, there are 37. And when you Browse books, there is no way to tell if a book is completed without going to the individual book page.
If I like a book, having a link to the other books that the author has on Podiobooks would be cool. Either an author’s listing page, or links from individual book pages.
The search function will not work if you type something in and then hit enter instead of clicking the search button.
Basically, it just seems like it is difficult to find what I want. I try to get books that are completed unless the author is one I know and trust will finish the book, ie Nate Lowell or JC Hutchins. Like what ever happened Lamp Post Motel? 3 Months without an update. Perhaps you should have in the contract a rule that requires that the author complete the book before submitting, but then they can determine how frequently the episodes are posted, all at once, weekly, biweekly, etc.
One other thing, the recent updates on the front page hold only 5 listings. Most days, that’s ok, but some days there are far more, most recently Aug 14th. Perhaps a link at the bottom that would take you to a page that has the last 20 or 100.
I had planned to write all this up and email it when I got it all together, but then saw this post. You rushed me, so I may have forgotten some of my small annoyances. I love the site and really appreciate all the work you’ve put into it.
August 16th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
I still have trouble browsing for things, or finding things. I think the general category “Science Fiction” for example is too big – I like space-opera but there isn’t any. Perhaps books could be in multiple categories – for example: “looking for #6”, I remember seeing it sometime back and went looking for it via category. Since I knew it was a non-fiction I looked there but it wasn’t, even though it IS a non-fiction book, instead it’s in travelogue (which is also a good place)…another possibility would be a subjective filtering listing/search, it would have to be manual but if you could browse through “intense action books” or “light summer reading” or “uplifting feel-good stories” or “books that will make you laugh” – there is a humor section but I think other books ought to be added to it, such as Nina Kimberly - again, perhaps thats the multiple category issue.
Another thing I was thinking of is perhaps a bit more info on the front page. When looking at it, the only hint I have of what the site is about is the tiny tiny tiny text in black at the top that says “free serialized audio books”. That is the ONLY place on the front page where you can find out that this is not simply another pay-to-listen site, in fact the “subscribe now” button on the books sounds like I would have to pay since I ay for magazine subscriptions.) There isn’t even a “what are we” section or link, just a FAQ link which 99.999% of people probably won’t even find since it’s between “why donate?” (an obvious begging page – which few will look at) and “Staff” (one of those pages NOBODY ever goes to
so I don’t know how many eyes ever even see the tiny FAQ link. As an exercise, try looking at the front page as if you were a searcher who knew nothing about audio books and hit the site based on some search. Keep in mind that the average viewer will only give you 8 seconds to look over the page before moving on.
Lastly, I think the “Selections from the staff” section is a great idea, however I think you ought to post a “why” paragraph, instead of (or in addition to) the typical blurb. Why is this a staff pick, was it particularly intense or thought-provoking or whatever, something to make people want to click on it. Again, this comes back to trying to “grab” the casual surfer. The dedicated podiobooker already knows what everything is about.
August 16th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
One feed to rule them all
I would like to subscribe to one feed and then as I add books, they automagically get downloaded in iTunes. This new feed should download just like the other personal feed.
August 16th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
As Tony said; A page where we can choose to whom we wish to donate via pay-pal based on my subscriptions.
I’d also like to see to whom I have already donated and how much I have donated to each Author.
Also, as suggested above. I’d like to be able to search by Author and I’d also like to easily be able to see what new books have been released since my last visit.
I’d like to be able to remove (preferably Hide) from my subscriptions page books that I’ve already listened to, but also, be able see my past history.
I sure all of these have been mentioned above, but they’re worth repeating. Keep it up PodioBooks and Authors.
August 17th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Problems:
Inconsistant tagging and file naming within the same series. There have been several times that I’ve had different tagging info and file naming conventions within a given series. I am a bit CDO (Compulsive Disorder, Obsessive) when I get files like that and it drives me nuts. Also, there are times that the episodes have different names that show up in my iTunes play lists. AURGH! tough to keep them straight that way.
Authors that start a story, post a few episodes, then disappear without finishing the story. There have been at least two that I know of, and after a year of hoping, I gave up… Even after leaving messages on the author’s website/blog and sending email out into the void (got no response). It would be nice if those could either be pruned out of the selection completely, or moved into a “dead story” listing against the hope that the author comes back to finish, someday.
I hate that, when I want to check my subscriptions, I have to log in every time, even though I have selected “remember my password” each time.
Suggestions:
Have some way to either list or search all PB listings by the same author.
“People who subscribe to this also subscribe to…” or some such would be a nice way to maybe discover similar works on PB.
Denote the books that I’ve listened to completely and/or don’t want to come up in search or view.
August 17th, 2007 at 9:12 pm
I’ll echo what Geordon says; My MP3 player is not an iPod (I know, I’m probably the last person on the planet without an iPod) and it does not have the screen real-estate to display longfilenames. I would also like to see consistent filenames and ID tags that always sort correctly regardless of how they are listed (filename, tags, etc.) with the episode number closer to the beginning (e.g within in the first 10 characters)
I also like the other ideas made by many others - flags to indicate which books I’ve already subscribed to - the ability for me to personally flag books that I’ve completed, the ability to exclude completed and/or subscribed books from searches and lists, the single feed to rule them all, etc. All good and worthy suggestions.
August 18th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Apart from a list of ‘new’ books it would be handy if I can hide the books whose feeds are complete, or at least sort them to the bottom. This way I can concentrate on the books I’m actually reading.
August 18th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Love and support Podiobooks. Here are only complaints, as requested:
Auditioning some books tonight I hadn’t heard, I noticed at least 3 with the disease of “make everything super loud”. In the days before this audio degradation ability was handed via digital preset to the DIY masses, it was known as clipping distortion — easily heard, and strenuously avoided by audio engineers. No, most people don’t hear it or care, but it’s possible to compress (audio, not data) a signal for easily audibility in most environments without destroying it. Could Podiobooks find an audio geek to screen new books for engineering disasters (e.g., “Number One with a Bullet”) before they’re published and extended into multiple episodes? Don’t even need to be a geek to view these audio offenses; load it up in an audio editor and see if the waveform tops look like a newly clipped hedge (flat). Plenty of examples at Wikipedia, under “Loudness war”.
Re the site, I subscribe not here, but at iTunes. Having to subscribe here before rating/commenting means unnecessary clicks.
Login ID is apparently case sensitive. If there’s a good reason for that practice, haven’t yet heard it.
Though a fan of Patrick McLean, I find the “caught up with the author” and “it’s over” clips annoying — unnecessarily cloy, especially when tagging often puts the “it’s over” clip at the beginning.
Good audio technique is surprisingly simple, not so expensive anymore, and hugely overlooked. If the authors/readers aren’t taking it up, Podiobooks might want to look into at least mastering the final files, also being in charge of…
Tags! As noted by others, a single character deviation can move a file into another bin. This stuff should be scrutinized before publication, where someone not taking 2 minutes of care becomes a headache for thousands.
Agree with commenter about allowing a multiple-books view for payment, and elsewhere. Would be nice if the “My Subscriptions” page allowed multiple actions via checkboxes and a master command button, especially since all of my subscriptions were made only to allow rating/comment.
August 19th, 2007 at 12:46 am
I know we are supposed to be complaining about podiobooks.com, but as I was about to echo the complaints about inconsistent file ordering, I remembered I had done a little testing with this, and so in addition to adding to that complaint I’ll offer a suggestion/observation. I had an ILO player, and after that piece of crap broke I have a Creative Zen Nano. The file ordering on the two of them was different. The ILO actually had better understanding of ID3 tags and (mostly) used them to order files, and the Zen uses a strange combination of directory structure, vfat names (limited to 8.3 syntax) and timestamps. After noticing that I checked out xmms and winamp and they also seem a little different (in that case with music instead of podcasts) in what they use to order files. And amarok seems to have a weird system where when it imports a file it records the tags, and changing the tags on the files (using id3tool) doesn’t seem to change where it is categorized until you go to the “edit track information” dialog.
So, two suggestions are 1) where Fraser above says put the episode/chapter number in the first 10 digits, I’d say to put it as the first two digits, instead of the last digits, and 2) maybe a separate request for people to list their players and how the songs get sorted so that you could actually figure out something to do about it. It doesn’t help to fix things for one player and break them for another. Probably something as simple as consistent file naming (which I’ve not had a problem with), consistent file timestamps (I have had a problem with this when episodes are uploaded en-masse and possibly re-uploaded at a later date) and making sure that all agrees with ID3 tags, as well as some system of ID3 tagging conventions. Personally, either I listen to books as the episodes are released, or after downloading a number of episodes the problem has bit me enough that I rename all files with a prefix of the episode number and then run touch on them in episode order so the names and timestamps are in order.
August 19th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Books should be released when they are finished, not when the first chapter comes out. That way people could download the whole thing immediately and listen to it on their own schedule. Right now I am having to keep a list of books to check up on once in a while to see if they’re complete so I know whether or not to download them yet. This gets annoying. If the above suggestion is not implemented, then I find it imperative that the following suggestion be heeded.
Newly completed books should be announced with just as much vehemence as newly started books.
August 19th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
I too find this a great site and hate to complain. But since you asked
It would be nice for the search button to work fully. When searching for a specific author or title, if you hit the enter key the search does not go through. If you click the go button most of the time it does but you always get a page cannot be found on some part. Is that an advertisement banner?
August 20th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
upload episodes to the server more then 3 times a week, possibly everyday
August 20th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
John Aug 19: How are you downloading these books? Sounds to me as if your doing it manually. What a chore. Download a decent Podcast aggregator. I highly recommend Ziepod www.zipeod.com (Not the plus version -unless you want video as well - plus that one costs) which is free and very user friendly. This way you can get sit back and wait for the new episodes to drop in.
Inconsistent filenames: I agree with these comments. Filenames should be consistant, consise and have the episode numbers in the first two places, including not forgetting the leading zero for episodes under 10. Thankfully for the moment, I have a work-around. I use a little batch file that
transfers them onto my (non-iPod) MP3 player in the correct order. Sweet!
August 20th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
I forget to state my Number 1 complaint.
Podiobooks.com is too addictive. Especially when I have to hang out for the latest episode. Aaaarrggh! Mr Full Share: Nathan Lowell…feed my addiction, HURRY! Withdrawal beginning to take place…must seek comfort in an other podiobook now…not enough Lowell…the pain…the pain……
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:45 am
The ability to click on the author name and go to a page with all books from the author. Yes, I know search works, but I am lazy.
August 27th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Hi Evo,
I love the concept and the site design. The issue for me is if it only worked as designed.
1/ It doesn’t remember me no matter how many time I check the box. I have cookies set to accept.
2/ Search on the home page doesn’t work for me. The returned page has a section in the middle that says “The web page can not be found”. Note - if I use the search box on the returned page it works fine. However there is a section at the end of the page that says web page can not be found.
3/ Site performance is periodically very slow - > 60 sec for a page. This seems random - occasionally there is an entry in the blog but often not.
Again I am way more happy of what you guys have done than these minor operational problems.
Also - if you’d like to debug we can set up a time for you guys to log into my system to see what I see.
September 11th, 2007 at 2:33 am
As mentioned many times above it would be nice if the author had a dedicated page listing all of their books maybe as well as a short biography, links to their website etc.
The other thing that I’ve always found a bit strange is that the book discussion is essentially handled in a different site (podiobooker). Seems like podiobooker should be strictly reserved for admin sorts of stuff and comments about the books should actually appear on the books page and be more integrated into the site.
I’ve got other beefs too, some people say that’s just me, but great site generally.
September 27th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Agreed with Dianne that a tagging system would be useful, as well as a “if you liked this you may like…” links section within the page for each title to other books with a similar theme, as a way of getting people to browse for other Podiobooks titles they might be interested in - not just by the same author, but in the same genre or sub-genre.
October 5th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
BTW, thanks so much for publishing “Grey” and “Beautiful Red”.
on to the negative: been noticing many more false takes recently that haven’t been edited out. for example,
“Christina looked up her maga… [pause] Christina looked up from her magazine […]”
have also heard a few that don’t sound like outtakes — just unintentional doubling of the same line, possibly even a copy/paste. haven’t engineered much digitally, but crusty analog types used to have a very low frequency oscillator to slate takes, and it stood out when shuttling the reels at high speed. maybe readers/engineers could be encouraged to adopt a slate system appropriate for their software, ensuring that all markers are accounted for and removed. barring that, having an outside party proof the finished product before release would tend to catch more errors than the weary authors who know the material so well that they tune out when listening, or simply hear what they want. as with word processing, it’s difficult to fully proof your own material.
March 20th, 2008 at 1:43 am
1) I always download the complete book before listening. Most of the time I love the books but if I find one that is poorly written I am unable to comment on it.
2) The star rating system does not work as almost all books have 4 to 5 stars for everything and life is not like that.
3) Not enough pure detective story’s. I am a mature listener, well read from Shakespeare to Asimov but I am not a gamer and too many books are aimed at the comic/gamer world
April 14th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
My problem is that no one is ever critical here. Save the “all the books are good” stuff for your grandma, I’m tired of wasting time downloading really badly written books with really bad narration and really bad technical work. Where’s the real reviews?
April 14th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
You’re absolutely right, PD. The *vast* majority of ratings and reviews we receive are glowing. On all books. Few people bother to leave a bad review or even rate a book poorly if they think it deserves it. Instead, they just cancel their subscription and move on to the next book.
Maybe it’s a function of how easy it is to move on. Maybe it’s related to the fact that the content was free. But it is an interesting phenomenon.
June 11th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
I agree with Evo’s thoughts on complaints. I personally don’t like to complain about a book because after all its free and I’m very grateful for all the hard work everyone does to get them out.
I use itunes and I have not really found a problem with the file tags but maybe that’s because I set them up in a playlist before transferring them to my ipod. If any are out of order you just drag them to the right place. Don’t think I’ve had to do it often though.
My only real bugbear is over loud musical links or sound effects, When listening on earphones you set volume to a comfortable level for listening to speech and get deafened by a narrator suddenly shouting or a loud link making you tear of the headset and wince.
I too would love to be able to search for an author.
A better way to order subscribed books would be handy too even if it was only the ability to alphabetise them so searching for a title would not entail scrolling down the entire list.
In the main though I love the site and would honestly be lost without it. Well done podiobooks and keep em coming :O)